Ed, Edd n' Eddy Summer Camp Love
by Linken88
Summary: Edd is spending a summer away from the cul-de-sac to attend a educational summer camp. He is looking forward to spending the summer learning and not having any stress. But he doesn't know that a blue haired girl from Peach Creek is also going to the camp. What could happen with these two away from their normal element? Will friendship come, or will something greater blossom?


"Ed, please stop crying." The young teenage boy in an orange shirt, black ski hat, and well kept blue jeans says to the two foot taller boy in a green jacket and worn jeans who is crying on his shoulder. "I will only be gone for two months."  
"But Double Dee! What if you are abducted by the Martian Men of Galvin Five? I'll never see you again!" Ed, the boy crying, exclaims in between sobs.  
"Oh come on Lumpy! It's not the end of the freaking world." A third teen boy yelled, this one in a yellow shirt and stone washed jeans, pulling Ed off of the first boy.  
"Yes Ed. As much as I do like seeing you boys express your... unique friendship, I need to get Eddward to the bus station very soon." A tall woman, in a dark red suite, says pulling Eddward, also known as Edd, away from his two best friends.  
"Good buy gentlemen, do try to not do anything rash while I am away." Edd waves at his friends as his mother directs him towards the family car.  
"Bye bye Double Dee!" Ed yells once more as Edd enters the passenger side of the car.

The car ride to the bus station was a wordless ride. As is every ride in the Vincent Family car, Edd has just never had anything to talk to his mother or father about in the car. So as they travelled down the road he thought about the three hour bus ride he will be taking to the summer camp his parents let him go to for the summer after his freshmen year of high school.  
'Let's see, I have adequate amount of water for the ride, my Smartphone is changed and I have my full collection of Mozart and Beethoven downloaded onto it, and I have fresh book to read on the trip.' He thinks going over the items he packed for the trip. He'd also packed several changes of clothing, his bathroom needs, a few more books, and his old magnifying glass for the two months at summer camp.

Once Edd and his mother reached the bus station Edd gave his mother a quick and formal hug goodbye. "Farewell Mother."  
"Goodbye Eddward, enjoy your time at camp. And don't be afraid to make some new friends."  
"But I'm going to learn, not make friends Mother."  
"I understand Eddward, but it never hurts to expand your contacts in the scientific community."  
"Ok Mother, I will try and befriend some of the other children."  
Edd's mother gives Edd another quick hug and then he climbs aboard the yellow school bus that would take him away from Peach Creek, his friends and anyone else that knew him.  
On the bus Edd sees that their isn't many kids on it yet, so he finds an empty seat in the middle, to avoid the wheel wells, dawns his ear buds and starts reading his book with a picture of a retro looking robot and a mad scientist on the cover.

Edd sat there listening to his music and reading as the bus filled with other kids. Eventually he felt the engine come to life, but he didn't hear the female voice yelling at the bus to stop. Nor did he see the blue haired teenage girl, in a sleeveless black shirt that has also been cut short to show off her midriff along with the pink belt that is holding up her dark green cut off shorts, get onto the bus panting from running to catch the bus.  
The blue haired girl walks to the back of the bus giving anyone that looked at her a death glare, which is why she didn't see Edd reading. She reached the back of the bus and pulled an older girl out of the single person seat and sat down in it.  
"Hey I was sitting there!" The older girl yelled at the blue haired girl.  
The blue haired girl just looks the other right in the eyes, through her bangs covering her right eye. "My seat." She says with a voice that demands respect as she set her old backpack that has "Kanker Life" written on it with sharpie down on the floor.  
The older teen felt intimidated and the blue haired girl watches her walk down the aisle to an empty seat. The blue haired girl looks past the other girl at the familiar looking black hat a few seats ahead. 'Well hello.' She thinks realizing who is on the bus with her.

Three hours, half a book, and most of his water drunk, the bus arrives at the camp. Edd looks out the window of the bus in time to see the big wooden sign that reads "Camp Wonder, where the left and right mingle."  
'Fantastic.' Edd thinks as his excitement rises.  
When the bus comes to a stop and the engine dies, all the kids in the bus stand up and start filing out of the bus quite hastily wanting to get out and stretch after three hours of sitting.  
Once outside of the bus Edd sees all the camp has to offer. There is a large two story brown building with a sign reading "Mess Hall" over its double doors, four buildings, also brown, flanking either side of The Mess Hall, two each, with signs reading "Recreational Building A, B, C and D", several long buildings with a window in the back all in a row next to the woods and lastly a big building off to the side with the word "Latrine" painted on it. Edd can also see a large lake with a dock at the far end of the camp.  
"Campers." A very tall middle age woman with short blond hair dressed in a green shirt that reads "Camp Wonder" and khaki shorts yells from atop a tree stump. "Kids, can I have your attention please."  
All the kids turn and face the lady on the stump. "Thank you. First off I want to be the first to welcome you all to Camp Wonder, and a special welcome to those of you that won the scholarship contests at your school for the chance to come to the camp. My name is Ms. Marpole and I am your head counselor. As I am sure you are all aware Camp Wonder is a very special and unique place. Here we work with you to develop not only the minds of those who will grow up to be the next generation of scientists and researchers, but also we help those with a passion for the arts grow their skills. In short we want to help those who are in their right frame of mind as well as those who are in their left."  
Ms. Marpole got a few laughs from the kids in the crowd, but most of them were pity laughs.  
"Thank you, I try to make it as fun as possible, but down to business. Those of you here for the science program gather around my assistant Tim." Ms. Marpole gestures to her left to the gentleman with short blond hair, black glasses, and a green shirt and khaki shorts just like Ms. Marpoles.  
"And if you are here for the art program gather around my other assistant Tina." This time Ms. Marpole gestures to the woman to her right, with green hair black glasses and clothing just like Ms. Marpole and Tim. "And we will get you kids into your cabins and then to lunch."  
The kids start moving around to gather around the assistant they needed to. And as Edd moved to gather around Tim he saw a flash of blue hair in his peripheral vision and felt a shiver run down his spine. 'That was quite strange.' He thinks at Tim starts to talk.  
"Hello boys and girls again welcome to Camp Wonder, I'm Tim and I am in charge of the science half of the camp. If you have any questions come to me. Now form a line and one at a time we'll get you to your cabin."  
The kids quickly form a line in front of Tim and one at a time they give him their name, he looks through a list on a clipboard and then tells the kid which cabin they are staying in for the next two months.  
As Edd waits in the line, with his bag over his shoulder, he looks over at the other group of campers. The art program kids are crowding around Tina with no form of order that Edd could see.  
Edd watched the other campers fighting to get to Tina, and again he sees blue hair moving through the crowed and he felt a familiar sense of dread and his lip pulled unto his mouth instinctively. 'Who is that?' He thinks as he shakes his head to get rid of the feeling of dread.  
He didn't see the strangely familiar blue hair again as he waited in the line, and soon he was standing in front of Tim.  
"Hello Sir." Edd says giving Tim a quick smile.  
Tim returned the smile, just as quick. "Hello and your name is?"  
"Eddward Vincent."  
Tim looks at his list. "Vincent..." he says running his finger down the list."Here you are, Eddward Vincent you are in cabin eight."  
"Cabin eight, thank Sir." Edd nods to Tim and then walks away from him and towards the row of cabins.

Cabin Eight is the last of the cabins and is brick building painted dark brown. Inside Edd see that there are six metal framed beds, three against each wall, with wooden trunks at the foot of each bed and a small nightstand next to each bed. On top of each bed is a stack of red t-shirts that has the camp logo on them along with a list of the rules for the camp. There are already three boys in the cabin; A boy shorter than Edd with red hair and thick black rimmed glasses sitting on a bed in the far left corner of the cabin, a tall skinny boy with no hair on his head unpacking his suitcase into the footlocker of the bed next to the first boys and a boy with black hair lying on the last bed on the left side of the cabin.  
Edd clears his throat. "Hello gentlemen."  
The three boys look over at Edd and all say; "Hello." simultaneously.  
"My name is Eddward Vincent."  
"Cecil." The black haired boy says giving Edd a half hearted wave from his bed.  
The hairless boy gets up from the floor and walks over to Edd. "I'm Ben, nice to meet you." He says shaking Edd's hand.  
The red haired boy just nods and says "Dexter."

As Edd is making introductions with his cabin mates, in Cabin One things are going very unfriendly. The Blue haired girl was the first one into the cabin, having fought her way into the middle of the crowded, and has moved two of the beds together and is now fighting with one of the other girls.  
"You can't have both of the beds." A tall strawberry blond girl says standing over the blue haired girl, who is lying across both of the beds.  
The blue haired girl grins. "Yeah I can."  
"There are going to be six of us in this cabin, so we are going to need all six beds."  
"Well then, I guess two of ya are going to have to double up."  
The strawberry blond girl smiles having come up with a good idea. "Fine then." She says before jumping onto the beds next to the other girl.  
The blue haired girl didn't expect the other girl to be this bold. "The heck are ya doing?" She asks moving away from the other girl.  
"What? You said someone would have to double up, I figured we could bunk together since we're becoming camp besties."  
The strawberry blond girl then grabs for the other to give her a hug, but the blue haired girl dodges the other and then counters by throwing a punch at her face. But the strawberry blond girl catches her fist before it gets anywhere close to her face.  
The blue haired girl smiles, only two other people are skilled enough to counter her punches. "Nice catch." She says taking her hand back.  
"Nice punch."  
"Names Marie."  
"Blossom, nice to meet you."  
Marie moves backwards till she was sitting one just one bed. "Ya can have the bed, but don't think too much of it." She pushes the other bed away with Blossom still on it.  
Blossom smiles at her victory. "Thanks, camp bestie."  
"I will kill you if you call me that again." Marie didn't think she would make any friends at this camp, but this Blossom might be someone she could tolerate.

* * *

For the first few days of camp Marie watches Edd as often as she could, eating in the mess hall was when she got most of her watching. She was trying to figure out what to do about the situation she found herself in, no Eddy or Ed to keep him away from her and no sisters telling her what to do, or not to do. Without the Ed's or her sisters Marie could maybe finally talk to him, get him to at least not think of her as a demon spawn of hell. But try as she might, she just couldn't think of any good way to reveal herself to him, so she just decides to drop the ball on him and hope for the best.  
She watches him from affair and waits for him to sit down and start eating, alone like he always does. Quietly she walks over to him keeping out of his view, and when she reaches him, still unseen, she pokes him in his right shoulder but moves quickly to sit on the bench on his left.  
Edd looks to his right but sees no one and shrugs and goes back to eating his eggs.  
"Hey ya Double Dee."  
At the sound of her voice Edd almost jumped out of his camp shirt and black shorts. He turns and sees the last person he wanted to see. Next to him, in a blue camp shirt like his, with the sleeves ripped off, and green shorts was Marie Kanker. Marie is Edd's personal bully, stalker, and self proclaimed girlfriend, which Edd denies every time it's mentioned.  
"Ma-a-rie! Wh-at are you doing he-re?" He asks stuttering in fear.  
Marie has always thought Edd looked cute when he panics, but she had to cut her enjoyment of it short, she is a woman on a mission. "Relax Double Dee, were on neutral ground so I'm not here to attack you."  
Edd is hesitant at first, but Marie isn't attacking him, so he takes a deep breath and hopes she is being honest with him. "Ok, but why are you at Camp Wonder?" He asks pressing his question of her being at the camp.  
"What does it look like, I'm going to camp."  
"And are yo-ur sisters here?" Edd asks worried that the other two Kanker sisters are also at the camp.  
"Nope, I'm flying solo, just like you are."  
Edd knows of the Kanker family's financial shortcomings and has to ask a second question. "And how did you manage to attend the camp?"  
It hurt Marie that Edd wondered where her family would get the funds for her to go to the camp, but she just smiled and says; "I won a contest from school to go to the art program."  
"You're artistic?" He asks. He knew of the contest, it's how he learned of the camp himself, but he never knew who had won the contest.  
"The best of our school shows how much ya know about me."  
It hit Edd that he didn't know much about her. "I'm sorry I did not know this about you Marie."  
"Well to be fair, I never told ya much about me." Marie couldn't believe that she is holding a conversation with Edd, they are talking like two normal teens would. No running, no chasing, no begging for her to stop kissing him, just talking and eating their breakfast.

They continue their small talk as they ate their breakfast, but it was mostly Marie telling Edd about the art program as he was still too scared to talk. Tina was letting the kids do mostly whatever they wanted, so long as they were making one form or another of art.  
"That sounds rather chaotic." Edd says as he folds up his napkin, having finished eating. His fear of Marie has calmed down slightly.  
"Art is chaos." Marie replies, wiping her hands clean on her pant legs. "Speaking of which, I have work to start doing." She gets up from the bench.  
"Well, um... it was, nice to talk with you Marie." Edd is too nervous to get up from the table, so he intends to wait till Marie has left to get up himself.  
Marie smiles. "Later Double Dee." She says before her Kanker ways kick in and she quickly leans down and kisses Edd on the neck from behind before walking away.  
The kiss made Edd freeze from shock, he had let his guard down and had paid for it.

Later that night Edd is laying on his bed polishing his magnifying glass, something he does when he is thinking deeply. He is lost in thought of what could happen at the camp and of the kiss Marie placed on his neck. The kiss was soft and gentle, unlike the rough ones Marie is known to give him.  
"So who was your lady friend?" Dexter asks from the bed across from Edd's.  
"I beg your pardon?" Edd asks, coming out of his deep thinking.  
"I saw you with a blue haired young woman at breakfast." Dexter says, clarifying his question.  
"Oh." Edd understood now. "She is... an acquaintance from my home town."  
From the bed next to Dexter, Ben says; "Judging from the kiss she gave you, I'd say more than just acquaintance."  
Edd felt a small amount of embarrassment. "Marie has always held a special kind of affection towards me, one I've never return."  
"So she's crushing on you, but you're not digging her face?" Ben asks.  
Edd did not understand Ben's slang. "I'm sorry?"  
"He's says you don't like her because she is not attractive." Dexter says translating what Ben said.  
Thinking about Marie's looks was something Edd has never done, but he does now. "I never said she wasn't attractive. Marie is, in her own ways, an attractive young woman."  
"If you think she's hot, give her a little macking." Ben says grinning.  
"Ben, you are so stupid." Dexter says before turning back to Edd, who is a few shades redder. "You do not need to listen to him, we all have those in our lives that drive us crazy with their affection. Like my sister."  
"Your sister is a bother?" Edd asks, setting his magnifying glass down on his nightstand.  
"You have no idea. She is always interrupting me when I'm working and doesn't understand the concept of a locked door."  
"Sounds like your sister is a bit of a crazy person." Ben says as the door to the cabin opens.  
Tim sticks his head into the cabin. "Lights out campers." He says before flicking the light switch down.  
The door closes and Dexter responds back. "She is a pain most of the time, but she is my sister and I know that she cares in the end."  
Edd moves under the covers of his bed. 'Dose Marie care about me more then just as a toy?' He thinks closing his eyes.

* * *

A few days later Edd is out in the woods surrounding the camp walking slowly and looking at the ground with his magnifying glass. As part of this week's project for the science program, science in nature, he is looking for ants to document the building of their hills and how they move through the underbrush.  
He stops and stands up straight to stretch his back. Looking around he sees someone sitting on a large rock in a small clearing. Curious he moves closer and sees its Marie sitting on the rock drawing in a sketchbook. He stands there watching her draw, she is focused on her work but would stop drawing, look up at something and then look back down and continue drawing.  
Slowly he moves over to her, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Um, what are you drawing?"  
Marie is startled by Edd and jumps and brandishes her pencil ready to attack. "What do ya- Oh! Hey Double Dee." She sees that it's Edd and relaxes from her attack stance.  
Edd had taken a step back from Marie, out of instinctive fear of the girl and of wanting to be out of stabbing range. "I apologize for startling you Marie."  
"It's cool. But if you'd gotten stabbed, I would have left you hear to die." She says keeping a straight face.  
Edd's eyes grow wide. "I... REALLY?" He couldn't believe that Marie would do that.  
Marie giggles. "Na, just messing with ya." The look on Edd's face fueled her Kanker ways, but she pushed that to the side in the hopes of talking to Edd again. "What are ya doin out here anyways?"  
"I'm looking for ants."  
"Ants?" She asks baffled.  
"For a project for camp, why are you out here?" He asks still curious about what she was doing.  
"Drawing obviously."  
"What are you drawing?"  
Marie loves that Edd is interested in her drawing and moves over on the rock to make room. "Sit down and I'll show ya."  
Edd hesitates, he didn't think it was safe to sit down next to Marie initially, but she did say she wasn't going to attack him. So slowly he sits down on the rock next to the smiling blue haired girl.  
Marie's smile grows as she shows her drawing to Edd. "So this is what I've been working on." Marie is quite proud of her drawing skills. Drawing is the thing she is best at, apart from striking fear into the hearts of others and tormenting Edd.  
Edd looks over Marie's drawing, she was drawing the forest in front of where she was sitting. "This is very good Marie." He says admiring the details of the drawing.  
"Thanks!" Marie felt her heart pick up speed at receiving a compliment from Edd. "I found this place on the first day here, I wanna draw the whole area. See I already have a few pages planed out."  
Marie carefully turns the page of her sketch book showing Edd the first and second basic outlines she's done of the area around the clearing.  
Edd is amazed, not only what she's done so far looks realistic, but they match up edge to edge perfectly. "I see how you were able to win the contest Marie, you definitely have a great amount of skill."  
Had Marie not said she wasn't going to attack him, she probably would have Edd pinned to the rock and would be covering him in kisses from receiving such a compliment from her crush. But she agreed to play nice so that is what she was going to do. "Thanks again Double Dee. I love drawing and it means a lot that you like it."  
"Do you intend to continue with it after high school?"  
"Not originally, a Kanker going to college isn't a thing that could happen. But I got the free ride to this place, so maybe I could land one again."  
"You would need more than just being a good artist, scholarship givers look for applicants with good grades too." Having his parents, who are always pushing him academically, Edd already knows about what is needed to get into college at his age.  
"Well." Marie grins a sly grin. "I guess I should look for a tutor to give me some private lessons. Do you take kisses as payment, or would you prefer something else." She couldn't help it, she had to teas Edd a little, and when his face turned redder then she has ever seen it she started giggling.  
"Ma-arie.. I-I, I didn't say- you don't have to-to-" Edd stutters out of embarrassment. He helps his friends with their homework, but Marie's offer of compensation for his help came out of nowhere.  
"I'm kidding silly, unless you don't want me too." Marie says, with a hint of seduction in her voice, as she moves inches closer to Edd.  
Edd's panic rises and he falls off the rock trying to move away from Marie.  
When Edd fell off the rock Marie forgot all about flirting with Edd. "Oh my god, are you ok Double Dee?" She asks jumping off the rock to help Edd up from the ground. "Sorry for that, I was just messing around."  
Edd gets up from the ground, having grabbed Marie's hand for help. "I am unhurt, but thank you for your concern." Edd doesn't let go of Marie's hand after being helped up.  
Marie noticed that Edd was still holding her hand, but she didn't say anything, wanting to keep holding his hand. "I didn't think you'd fall of the rock, you're usually more aware then that."  
"I may have been distracted to the point of being unaware of my surroundings." Edd finally noticed he was holding Marie's hand still and pulled his away from hers. "But um, if you are interested in getting help with you school work I can get you into the tutoring program I am in at school."  
"Would you be my tutor?"She asks hiding her sadness of Edd pulling their hands apart.  
"I can't say. Tutors are assigned by subjects to those who need help with what they excel at."  
"So if you needed help with everything but art and gym they would get you?"  
"It's possible."  
"Good, cause I'm going to need YOUR help with it all then."  
"I might not be the one to help you though Marie."  
"If I don't get help from the smartest boy in our class, then I don't want any help."  
Edd is already well aware that he has the highest GPA of their grade, but Marie was the first fellow teenager of Peach Creek to say that he is smart and not mean it as an insult.  
He rubs his hand over where Marie's fingers were touching the back of his hand. "Thank you for saying that Marie."  
Marie jumps back onto the rock. "What it's true. You are the smartest person I know, I'm just stating the facts."  
"Well thank you none the less for the compliment, no one has ever said I was the smartest person they know. Most tend to use my IQ as a way to insult me."  
Marie picks up her sketch book from where she left it while saying; "Ya just gotta not think about what others think or say about ya. I don't and I'm fine."  
"What other people say does not bother you?" Edd sits down next to Marie, this conversation was getting interesting to him and he might as well sit down.  
Marie looks at her drawing and then says; "There is only four people alive in this world that I care about their opinion of me, everyone else can stow it." As she looks out at the trees in front of her.  
Edd thinks for a brief moment trying to guess who the four are. "Your mother, sisters and a grandparent I take it?"  
"Close. I dunno who my dad's folks are and my mom's passed when I was younger." Marie starts drawing again as a smile grows on her face over the fact that she is having another conversation with Edd like a normal pair of teens.  
"I'm sorry to hear about your loss Marie."  
"Eh, it's how life goes, they lived a good life. But can ya guess who number four is?"  
Edd thinks again. "The school art teacher?" He asks thinking the person that she won the contest from was someone she cared about their option.  
"Nope." Marie's smile grows.  
"Principal Warts?" Edd guesses their high school principal, he's someone Edd looks up to.  
"Nope again, want a hint?" Marie stops drawing and turns to Edd. "He has these sharp green eyes so full of wonder and knowledge that these blue ones just get lost in them."  
Edd feels his cheeks start to burn, Marie looking him right in the eyes made him realize that he was number four. "I would have never thought what I think about you would even matter Marie."  
Marie turns back to her work. "Surprise!" She says grinning as she draws.  
Edd felt an odd sense of flattery that Marie valued his option. "But if you value what I think, why would you treat me the way you do?" He asks finding it odd that she does what she does along with this information.  
"I dunno, it's fun and you look cute when you're panicking."  
"How is the torment you've bestowed upon me fun?"  
"Cause its chaotic. Chaos is fun Double Dee, you should try doing something spontaneous ounces in a while."  
"I'll pass thank you."  
Marie shrugs. "Your loss."  
Edd looks up at the sky and sees the sun is on its way down. "I do believe we should be returning to the camp Marie, it will be dark soon."  
Marie closes her book and slides her pencil behind her ear. "K, the light was getting kind of crappy anyways."

The two teens walk through the woods side by side in silence, Edd not knowing what to say and Marie wanting to just enjoy the walk next to her dreamboat.  
"Well, I guess this is where we part ways." Edd says once the two teens are back on the camp grounds.  
"Thanks for chatting Double Dee."  
"No thanks needed Marie, it was rather informative for myself."  
Marie was about to walk away leaving Edd on a high note when her Kanker instincts kick in. Quickly she leans over and kisses Edd on the neck, just like she did when they talked at breakfast days before. "Bye bye handsome." She whispers to the frozen Edd before quickly walking away.

Edd sat looking at his corn dogs and baked beans on his plate. He is hungry and wants to eat the food in front of him, but he is too lost in thought. Marie kissing his neck a second time confused him more then he has ever been over a girl. Marie has inflicted years of terror upon him, but over the past few days she has been nice to him, complimented him in ways no one other than his parents has, gave him some simple advance that sounds very sound, opened up to him ever so slightly. And she's kissed his neck twice with soft kisses that froze him out of shock, but he didn't hate them like the forced kisses she'd given him in the past.  
'Why are you doing this Marie?' He thought as a boy sits down across from him.  
"Hey Eddward." Ben, one of Edd's cabin mates, says with the enthusiasm Edd has come to expect from Ben.  
Ben snapped Edd back to reality. "Oh, hello Ben." He says finally picking up his spoon to start eating.  
Ben grins. "You know what is funny?"  
"Humor is not one of my strong points Ben, but do enlighten me." Edd replied, thinking what Ben is about to say to be nothing of great importance.  
"Well for Marie being someone you don't like, you spend an awful amount of time with her." Ben pointed at Edd, happy that he just "got ya moment" Edd.  
"I beg your pardon?"  
"I saw you come out of the woods with her and her give you another kiss on the neck."  
"I just ran into her in the woods."  
"Why were you in the woods?"  
"I was looking for ants for the project for today..." Edd trailed off at the end. He just realized that he never found what he went into the woods looking for.  
"Right, well she digs you, and I think you got a thing for her."  
"I can assure you Ben, there is no "thing" for her." Edd can't believe he didn't finish the task assigned to him, he's never left a task unfinished.  
'I can't believe I did not find any ants.' He thinks scolding himself as he ate his corn dog. 'I will most certainly get into trouble for my failure. But, talking to Marie wasn't so bad, there is more to her then I previously thought. Today was an enlightening afternoon, and maybe it was worth it to have the chance to talk with Marie.'

* * *

"Come on Marie, you're wasting time!" Blossom yelled at the curtained off corner of the girls cabin that is for the girls to change.  
"Don't rush me ya damn powder puff!" Marie yelled back through the curtain. A bunch of the campers were going swimming in the lake and Blossom had convinced Marie to go along. But now that she is standing in her bikini top and swim shorts she is starting to get nervous about showing this much skin around strangers.  
Blossom has already changed into her pink swimsuit. "Come on Marie." She sings, Blossom is enjoying teasing Marie over her obvious embarrassment. "Your boy might be out there you know."  
"He's not my boy" Marie responds finally pulling the curtain open. "Yet."  
Blossom is the first person, apart from Edd, that she found that she could talk to. And over the few weeks of being cabin mates Marie and Blossom have learned a bit about each other.  
Blossom has two sisters who she shares a lot with, like practicing various forms of martial arts and watching alot crime shows, but she's the only one that takes after their father and is into science. And after the afternoon in the woods with Edd, Blossom saw Marie kiss Edd's neck and pestered Marie until she told her about Edd and her crush, leaving out the more aggressive points of what she's put Edd through.  
Blossom throws the white towel she was holding at Marie. "Best be careful then Marie. If he's not yours already, someone at this camp might snatch him up."  
"And then I'd sucker punch the barbie for touching my man." Marie says catching the towel.  
Blossom picks up her own towel from her bed and turns to walk out of the cabin. "See it's that aggressive nature that is going to keep him away from you."  
"Says you." Marie responds grinning. Marie knows that being nicer to Edd has yielded more results in getting somewhere with Edd over her bullying him. But she'll never admit it to anyone.

'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.' Edd thinks, standing at the end of the dock looking into the water. 'There could be leeches in the water, not to mention all the different parasites that could live in it.' He looks out at the other campers swimming and splashing around in the water as a pair of girls reach the other end of the dock.  
"The high energy electrons may be coaxed into emitting extremely bright and coherent beams of high energy photons via Synchrotron radiation, which have numerous uses in- are you understanding this?" Blossom asks looking over to Marie, who has a dead look on her face.  
On the walk to the lake Blossom started talking about particle acceleration and had quickly lost Marie to daydreaming.  
Marie snaps back from her trance. "What? Yeah, something about the Swiss and them ending the world."  
"No they won't, well probably."  
Just then Marie sees an all too familiar black ski hat and felt her heart pick up speed at seeing Edd shirtless. Seeing him standing right at the edge of the dock gives Marie a very bad idea. "Hold my towel" She says tossing her towel to Blossom before running down the dock.  
With quiet feet she crossed the distance between her and Edd without him noticing. When she reached him she jumps, wraps her arms around his chest and arms and sends them both flying into the lake.  
Had he been wearing a shirt he'd probably would have been scared out of it as Marie tackled him into the water.  
"Who in the name of- Marie!" Edd yelled after he surfaced and saw Marie right next to him. "What were you thinking? You could have..." Edd trails off, he was in full scolding mode until he saw what Marie is wearing. He's always seen her fully clothed, but now that he sees her standing in the lake with water up to her ribcage, with a lot more skin exposed, he see that she is growing into a rather attractive young woman. And he felt an odd sense of embarrassment from seeing her in her swimwear.  
His cheeks start burning, which Marie sees and she doesn't feel as self-conscious as she was. "Ya like what ya see Double Dee?" She says grinning at the beet red boy. "Cause it ain't free."  
"Marie, I-" Edd turns around so he couldn't see Marie. *Ahem* "I wish you hadn't done that. We both could have been severely injured."  
"Aww Double Dee." Marie wraps her arms around his neck from behind him. "I was just playing around, no need to over react."  
Marie's touch sends shivers down Edd's spine. "Marie, please..."  
Marie whispers into Edd's ear; "I just wanna play." Before dunking him under the water.  
Marie didn't hold Edd under the water for more than a few seconds. "Marie!" Edd yells when he came back up.  
Marie is laughing, and surprised that Edd's hat has stayed on. "Yes?" She asks trying to sound innocent.  
Marie's laughter is different from what he has heard in the past. It's a genuine laugh, no hint of evil and it threw him off. "You, you should be more careful. There is a large amount of rocks on the bottom of the lake, and someone could get hurt."  
Marie looks down into the water, there are a few rocks in the sand, but they are small and couldn't cause any real injuries. "I'll be careful Double Dee." She says before a wicked grin comes to her face. She then sends a wave of water at Edd lighting fast.  
The wave of water pushed Edd back and as he steps back his heel catches on a rock tripping him and he falls backwards into the water. Fear sets in as Edd falls, but as he gets ever closer to the water a pair of hands grab him. "I got ya Double Dee." Marie says pulling him back up. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't think you'd fall."  
"I told you to be careful Marie, why didn't you listen to me?" Edd glares at Marie as he scolds her.  
Marie lets go of Edd and frowns, she for once didn't want to hurt Edd and when he started to fall she felt fear and panic wash over her. "I… I'm sorry Double Dee. I was just wanting to play around. I'll… I'll leave you alone." Marie turns to walk away from Edd, she felt disheartened and decided to just leave the lake and go work on her drawings in her cabin.  
Edd has never seen Marie sad before. "Marie wait." Edd grabs her shoulder stopping her from walking away. "It was wrong of me to yell at you."  
Marie reaches over and places her hand on top of his on her shoulder. "I am really sorry that you tripped."  
Edd turns her back around so they are facing each other. "It's ok Marie. You were just playing around, and you are anything but gentle."  
Marie smiles. "Kankers are always rough, but in a fun way."  
Edd smiles back at her and feels a burst of boldness inside of himself. With his hand still on Marie's shoulder he says; "You mean like this?" and pushes her under the water.  
Being dunked surprised Marie, but she quickly recovers from it and grabs Edd's wrist and pulls him down into the water.  
The two teens surface together laughing. "I knew you knew how to have fun Double Dee." Marie says wiping her bangs off to the side of her head.  
"I never said I didn't."  
Marie leans close to Edd and whispers; "You just gotta let go and not think." And then splashes him again with water. But this time she doesn't send a wave at him, instead she cups some with her hand and throws it up at him.  
Edd didn't step back from the water attack, it was so small that all he had to do was wipe the water out of his eyes. Again Marie is laughing and Edd found himself enjoying her laugh and didn't realize that he was returning the water attack until the water was falling on Marie.  
Marie shakes her head. "You're letting the chaos in aren't ya Double Dee?"  
"I'm not sure, but this is fun." Edd says before splashing Marie again.

Marie and Edd will continue to play around in the water, splashing each other and dunking each other a few times. Marie was loving every minute spent with Edd and Edd himself was enjoying playing with Marie. Edd hasn't had much real fun growing up in Peach Creek. Fun for Eddy was always planning the next scam, which lead to little to no fun at all for Edd. Unless you counted all the building and planning Edd had to do for the more complex scams.  
A bell rings off in the distance. "That would be the lunch bell." Edd says stopping his attack of water. "We should probably get out of the lake."  
Marie looks off towards the camp. "Yeah I guess."  
Before Edd could say anything Marie gives him a quick hug and then rushes over to the dock, climbs out of the lake and runs over to where Blossom was laying on her own towel and grabbed hers before taking off to the camp.  
Edd just stood there in the water and watched Marie run away from him. 'Why are you doing this Marie?' he thinks as he watched her.

After changing out of his swimming shorts and into his regular clothing, Edd was sitting in the Mess Hall eating his lunch of chicken nuggets and tater tots. He was thinking over everything that has happened with Marie, without the others around she seemed more normal. She isn't attacking him or forcing kisses on him, say for the few she's given him on the neck, and is talking to him like he would with any other teen.  
'Maybe it is because we are at camp and not back home.' He thinks looking out at the crowd of faces he doesn't know. He has yet to get to know most of the kids at the camp, but he's becoming fast friends with Dexter and Ben.  
Dexter seems to be one of the smartest boys at camp, if not the smartest. Every question asked of him he would answer with ease and no problem presented to him would go without being solved within minutes.  
Ben is in the art program at the camp and spends all his time working on clay sculpting, when he is not trying to get Edd to "make a move on Marie".  
Edd scans the Mess Hall and notices that Marie is nowhere to be seen. Edd looks closer and confirms that Marie isn't in the hall. 'I wonder where she could be.' He thinks as he spots the strawberry blond girl Marie took a towel from. His curiosity get the better of him and he gets up from his tray of half eaten lunch and walks over to the strawberry blond girl.  
"Um, excuse me." Edd says once he reached the girl.  
Blossom turns around to face Edd. "Yes?"  
Edd scratches the back of his neck. "You are aquatics with Marie correct?"  
"Yes. Your Double Dee right?" Blossom asks recognizing Edd from what Marie has told her.  
"Yes I am, do you happen to know where Marie is?" He asks noticing that some of the other girls at the table were looking at him and whispering to each other.  
"Honestly, no. She's never eaten in the Mess Hall during lunch. I just guessed that she wanted to be anti social, that is her thing."  
Edd thinks this over and a light turns on in his head. "Ok, thank, have a good day." He says before turning and walking out of the Mess Hall.

Edd walks with haste away from the Mess Hall and into the woods. He had to look around as he did not remember the way to his destination, but eventually he finds Marie in the woods, on her rock and drawing while picking at her food.  
She didn't see him enter the clearing and Edd stopped walking when he reached ear shot of Marie, she is singing to herself as she drew. "Some... say I have no direction, that I'm a light-speed distraction, but that's a knee-jerk reaction. Still this is the final frontier, everything is so clear, to my destiny I steer…"  
Edd has never heard Marie sing and he has to admit that she has a good singing voice. He takes a step closer to her as she signs, but he stepped on a twig snapping it. Edd froze when the twig snapped and looked down at his feet.  
He then feels something fly by his head. "Jesus Double Dee! I could have hit you!" Marie yells at Edd as he looked behind him.  
Behind him Edd sees a fork stuck in a tree. "I- I'm sorry Marie." He says feeling the color drain from his face.  
Marie is glad that she missed when she threw her fork at Edd. "What are you doing sneaking around anyways?" She asks wanting to know what Edd is doing out in the woods.  
Edd looks away from the fork stuck in the tree. "I came looking for you."  
"Me?" She asks excited to hear that he is looking for her.  
"I wanted to ask you a question."  
Marie grins, she didn't think she'd have a second chance to play around with Edd today, and she is going to take full advantage of the situation. "Oh? Well if it's something naughty you're going to have to ask really nicely."  
Edd's face burns bright red. "Nothing like that. I want to know why you are doing this Marie."  
Confused Marie asks; "What do you mean?"  
Edd takes a step closer to her. "The being nice to me, not attacking and acting not like yourself. If this is all just a trick I ask of you to stop."  
Marie looks away from Edd. "It's not a trick Double Dee." She didn't think she'd have to explain herself to him yet. "When I saw you on the bus to camp I thought that maybe I could use this time to change things between us. You may not believe me, but I hate that you hate me. I was hoping that by the end of these two months, we could maybe be friends."  
Edd is taken back. "You… want us to be friends?" He asks wanting to make sure he heard her correctly.  
"I know I don't deserve to be your friend. I'm the horrible bully that has harassed you for years, but I want to change that."  
Edd walks over to the rock and sits down next to Marie. "You promise this isn't a trick, that you one hundred percent mean it that you want to be friends and that your days of bullying are over?" He asks not fully believing her.  
"I promise." She says looking over at the boy sitting next to her.  
Edd takes a deep breath, he still can't trust Marie fully, but his kind heart is telling him to give her a chance to change her ways. "Ok Marie, we can try to be friends."  
Marie could barely hold herself back from hugging Edd. "Thank you Double Dee, you won't regret it."  
Edd smile, something deep inside himself is excited about this. "We'll see. But if you don't mind me asking, what was that song you were singing?" He asks curious about her singing.  
Marie's cheeks turn red, she'd completely forgotten that she was singing and it just hit her that Edd had heard her. "Oh, it's a song from this cartoon that I like…"  
"Well, you have a nice singing voice."  
"Thanks" Marie jumps off of the rock. "I gotta go, I uh… need to use the bathroom." Marie runs off away from Edd clutching her sketchbook to her chest. She couldn't contain her affection for him for much longer, if she was going to try and be his friend, she had to get away before she attacked him for complimenting her again.

* * *

Over the next few days Edd didn't see much of Marie, say for a few times he's seen her at breakfast or dinner she has been mostly unseen. Edd thought it was odd that she is being scarce when she wanted to be friends, but he was still skeptical so he didn't go looking for her.  
Late one night Tim and Tina built up a large bonfire for the campers to enjoy, some are roasting marshmallows and some are singing camp song. Edd however has chosen to do neither of these and was leaning against a log reading a book via the fire light.  
He is lost in his book that he didn't see someone walking towards him. "What'cha reading Double Dee?" Marie asks sitting down on the ground next to him.  
"Oh, hello Marie." Edd says looking over at Marie surprised to see her. "I am reading a fictional book about a scientist that builds a robot that goes rouge and has started to rebel."  
"I didn't know you were into scifi Double Dee, I figured it was too fake for ya."  
Edd smiles. "Shows how much you know about me." He says quoting her from earlier when they talked for the first time at Camp Wonder.  
Marie grins a sly grin. "You would be surprised what I know about ya Double Dee."  
Edd looks at her a little worried and puzzled."What are you implying Marie?"  
"Nothing." She sings. "But I may have spied on you quite a few times." Marie couldn't help but giggle.  
Edd looks at Marie, who is still smiling. He isn't surprised that Marie has spied on him and had he not agreed to give her a chance to become his friend, and in doing so he chose to let bygones be bygones, he probably would have freaked out and yelled at her. "You… are a very unique person Marie."  
"I know right?" Marie says before popping a marshmallow into her mouth. "Want one?" She asks holding a bag of marshmallows over to Edd.  
Edd looks at the bag. "Where did you get those?" He asked as he took a marshmallow from the bag.  
"I jacked them from the table over there." Marie points at a table with marshmallows, sticks, graham crackers, and chocolate bars on it.  
Edd looks at the table and then back to Marie. "Why did you take them?"  
"Cause I wanted them." She answers eating another marshmallow.  
"I get that, but why take the whole bag and not just take some of the marshmallows and leave the bag?" He asks clarifying his question.  
"Oh, well that would have been the nice and polite thing to right?"  
"Yes of cores." Edd says confused that Marie would have to ask such a question.  
Marie eats another marshmallow. "Well there you go. You know I'm not a nice person."  
"Part of your whole chaos thing I take it?" He asks taking a marshmallow from the bag. Deep down Edd didn't fully believe that Marie thinks of herself as not a nice person. Sure she is rough, and slightly abusive, but from how she's been acting he can't say that she is not a nice person at the most basic form.  
"That and being a little bit selfish." Marie smiles and sets the bag of marshmallows down on the ground in between them and then opens her sketch book.  
Edd wondered where her sketch book came from, having not seen it in her hands when she joined him leaning against the log. But he just writes it off as he couldn't see it due to the dimming light.  
Marie started right away drawing in her book. "Ya know, I honestly thought you would have been reading something more technical. Like a book about computer programming." She says not looking up or stopping her drawing.  
Edd also doesn't look up from his book. "Well I would have if I had brought any books on it, it is something I quite enjoy."  
"You sound just like Blossom."  
"Blossom?" Edd asks looking up from his book.  
Marie stops drawing, eats a marshmallow and then says; "Blossom is this girl in my cabin, and all I hear all the damn time is about computers and crazy experiments."  
Edd smiles. "Is someone making a friend?" He asks making a joke.  
Marie was excited that Edd made a joke, it was the first she can think of him making. "She isn't afraid of me, which is strange, but Blossom is kind of a cool chick."  
"Huh, sounds like my cabin mate Dexter." Edd says as he starts reading again.

The two sit in silence, Edd reading and Marie drawing. Edd knows that he should tell Marie to return the bag of marshmallows, but he is a fan of marshmallows so he let her theft slide and eats a few as he reads. He would randomly reach in the bag to retrieve one of the white little pillows of sugar.  
But as he reached for one, his and Marie's hands touch. "Oh, sorry." Edd says pulling his hand away from the bag.  
Marie's heart jumped when their hands touched. "It's cool."  
Edd had looked over at Marie when he apologized and got a glimpse of what she was drawing. Marie has started drawing the fire pit in front of them, but she adds people on a spit over it. "Um, who are those people over the fire?" He asks looking over her unfinished drawing.  
Marie grins."You really wanna know?"  
Edd closes his book. "I did ask."  
Marie points to the first figure being cooked over the fire. "Well this one is Thomson-."  
"Our science teacher?" Edd asks cutting her off.  
"Yeah, he busted me for "miss using a Bunsen burner". This one is this guy that caught me stealing at the gas station."  
Edd rises an eyebrow. "Vengeful much?"  
"It's just a drawing. Not like I'll do it for real."  
"Ok, and what about the last two?"  
"They're Nazz and that guy Scott in your cabin." Marie says pointing to the last two people she's drawn.  
Edd is shocked by who the last two people are. "Nazz and Scott? Why them?" While Scott is a lot less of a friendly of a person, Edd couldn't think of why Marie wouldn't like him. Let alone Nazz, a blond girl that lives in the cul-de-sack and is in their grade.  
"Well that guy Scott is a grade A prick, he tried hitting on me the first day of camp. And I can't stand Nazz."  
"Why do you not like Nazz?" Edd asks completely forgetting that it was a drawing he'd asked Marie about.  
"Cause she is miss pop princess that everyone love and everyone thinks is perfect." In all reality Nazz's popularity was only a small reason of Marie's dislike of her. Secretly it was because Nazz is a girl Edd likes and Marie wants him to show that affection to her.  
"Nazz isn't that bad Marie, she is rather nice if you try talking to her." Edd thinks if Marie just talked to Nazz, like they have been, she might learn that Nazz is a rather nice girl.  
Marie lets out a quick laugh. "Fat chance, remember where I live, you think she'd talk to someone from the trailer park?" She says pointing at herself.  
"How would you ever know if you didn't try?" he asks back, crossing his arms.  
Marie raises her finger to argue against Edd, but she didn't have anything."Fair point." She says agreeing with him. "Still not going to stop me from drawing her over the fire."  
Edd picks his book back up and starts reading again. "I wouldn't want you doing anything that wasn't you Marie."  
Marie smiles at Edd's comment and goes back to drawing.

Edd was reaching the climax of his book and was not paying attention to the world around him. So he didn't see that Marie had fallen asleep next to him, and it wasn't until she'd fallen over and her head landed on his shoulder that he did notice.  
Edd stopped reading and looks over at Marie. 'She looks so innocent asleep, and cute.' He thought. 'Wait, what? Eddward stop that.' He shakes his head to get the unwanted thought of Marie out of his head.  
Edd sets his book down on the ground and then carefully gives her a gentle shake. "Marie." He whispers trying to wake her.  
"Mmm… don't wake me up unless the baby is crying…" Marie didn't wake up and muttered in defiance.  
Edd is confused by what she said and is curious what she is dreaming about, but he brushes that aside and shakes her again with a little more force.  
This time Marie snaps awake, but with a haze of sleep in her eyes. "Is it feeding time?" She asks slightly confused.  
Again Edd is confused. "Um, no. I just thought you'd prefer to go back to your cabin to get some rest rather than out here." He says pointing over to Marie's cabin.  
Marie blinks the sleep out of her eyes and fully wakes from her dream. "Oh, I guess I should." She picks up her sketchbook and then stands up. "Night Double Dee."  
"Good night Marie." Edd says before Marie turns and walks off towards her cabin. 'Who was she dreaming about?'

* * *

After the night sitting together by the fire Edd and Mare start being friendly to each other and spending some of their free time together. Eating meals together, say for lunch which Marie would never eat in the Mess Hall, was the most common activity they would do together. Edd has learned quite a lot about Marie when they would talk.  
The sisters never knew their fathers, but their mother has given them the best life she could. He also learned that the Kankers lived in Seattle Washington before moving to Peach Creek, it was after their grandmother passed that the family moved. Edd was starting to look forward to seeing her every day and would find himself fixated on the entrance to the Mess Hall every morning waiting for her. He wouldn't admit it to himself, Marie, or anyone, but he is starting to develop a small amount of affection for her.

Not everything has been just talking and eating, Marie has been using their newly formed friendship to get Edd to miss behave whenever she could.  
One day a group of the campers were out in the woods on a nature walk. Edd is enjoying being out in the woods surrounded by nature, and being with Marie. Edd had started out at the front of the group of kids, but wanting to stay by Marie he eventually found himself at the back of the group.  
Marie was also enjoying being outside with Edd, but the nature walk was boring her. They are following a roped off path that is paved and felt more like a school field trip to a museum.  
She looks over at her crush walking next to her, he is smiling at looking around at the trees, looking for birds she guessed. She then looks ahead and sees a gap in the rope fence and grins. Edd was matching Marie pace as they walked, so he didn't notice that they were slowing down and increasing the distance between them and the rest of the group. When they reach the opening in the rope Marie grabs Edd's hand and pulls him off the path and into the woods.  
Edd was shocked by Marie pulling him away. "Marie! What are you doing?" He asks, squeezing her hand as she pulled him into the woods.  
"We're going on a real nature walk, no stupid path." She said not looking back at Edd as they broke through some brush.  
On the other side of the brush they are in an area of the woods where the trees are far apart and forest floor is mostly covered with old dead leaves with a few bushes here and there.  
"Now this is nature." Marie says, looking around at the trees.  
Edd looks around as well, the part of the forest they are in is a better example of nature then the part by the path, and he could even see some birds in the trees. "It is rather pleasant." It just hit Edd that he was still holding her hand and slowly let's go.  
Marie was well aware that they were holding hands and frowned when Edd let go, but that frown was quickly replaced with a smile when she sees a family of deer walk into their view. "Oh my gosh, look Double Dee." She whispers pointing at the buck, doe, and fawn that was walking in front of them.  
"I did not know there were any deer around the camp." Edd looks around to see if there is anymore deer in the area, but he doesn't see any.  
"I wish I had a camera, this is a total Kodiak moment."  
Edd takes his Smartphone out of his pocket and quickly snaps a picture. "How's this?" He asks holding his phone over to Marie to show her the picture of the deer.  
"You brought your cell phone to summer camp?" Marie asks looking at the picture on Edd's phone, which was a good picture of the deer.  
Edd stows his phone back into his pocket. "I don't have any service out here, but it is such a habit to have it with me."  
"You're a bit of a tech junky aren't ya?" Marie asks as the deer move away from the two teens.  
Edd smiles. "A bit, yes."  
Marie frowns as the deer walk away. "You'll have to show me some of your toys someday." She wishes the deer had stayed longer, something about the three deer reminded her about the dream she'd had when she fell asleep in front of the fire. As Marie thought on her dream her cheeks started to turn faintly red.  
"You want to see some of my technological devices?" Edd asks, not seeing the faint red coloring in Marie's cheeks.  
Marie blinks her eyes to clear the thoughts. "Yeah, I'm sure ya got some cool stuff, you've built some crazy cool stuff for Eddy."  
Edd has never been complimented about his tech, and again this first time compliment came from Marie. "Thank you Marie."  
Marie turns to face Edd. "For what?"  
"For the complement."  
"Oh, well you're welcome. Come on, let's see what else we can find." Marie grabs Edd's wrist and pulls him off into the woods again.

They wander around the woods looking for anything interesting, but after wandering for an hour they found nothing say for trees, leaves, and dead wood.  
"Well this was a bust." Marie says as they reach the camp grounds again.  
"It was still a nice walk in the woods, even if we didn't see anything like the deer a-"  
"Marie Kanker and Eddward Vincent. What were you thinking?" Edd was cut off by Ms. Marpole walking over to them.  
"Crap." Marie says under her breath, she didn't think Edd and her would be busted for sneaking away from the group.  
Ms. Marpole reaches the two teens. "What would compel you to not only leave the group, but to go off the path? Do you not understand that there is nothing but woods for miles around us?"  
"Sorry, I didn't think we'd-"  
Edd cuts Marie off. "It is my fault Ms. Marpole. I saw a family of deer off of the path and I wanted to see them, Marie only followed me to try and stop me from leaving. I am sorry and I will never do it again."  
Marie can't believe her ears, Edd just told a lie to cover for her.  
Ms. Marpole was also taken back by what Edd said. He has been a model camper and to hear that it was him who broke the rules threw her off. "Oh, well… I am disappointed in you Eddward. I expect better from you." Ms. Marpole then turns to Marie, who is doing her best to look less guilty than she knows she is. "And you miss Kanker, you stay in line." Ms. Marpole then turns and walks away from the teens.  
Once she was sure the head of the camp was out of earshot Marie turns to Edd. "Why did you take the fall Double Dee?"  
"I did not want you getting into any serious trouble." Edd says, explaining his reason for lying. Edd had in fact lied without thinking, something in him wanted to keep Marie out of trouble.  
"Well thanks for white knighting."  
Edd chucked. "I don't think I was "white knighting" Marie. More of I guessed you've already gotten into trouble here at camp and I didn't want you to be kicked out of the camp."  
Marie smiles, but it is not her normal smile or her more mischievous one. It was a smile that reflected her affection for him and her gratitude for keeping her out of trouble. "Aw thanks for watching out for me Double Dee. I- I'll see ya at dinner, I wanna take a shower after walking around out there." Marie quickly turns and walks away from Edd, she had to get away from him before she said anything that would scare him away from her.

By the time she got back to her cabin her cheeks were burning red. "Get a hold of yourself Marie." She says looking around to make sure no one was in the cabin. She grabs her bathroom bag from atop her bed, that is never made, and heads for the door. "We almost dropped a bomb we couldn't recover from."

That night at dinner Marie acted as if everything was normal, or as normal as Marie is, and for the next couple of days they went about the camp without anything happening.

* * *

Edd sat on his bed looking out the window at the night's sky. Normally he would fall fast asleep when he'd lay down for the night, but this night his mind was keeping him awake with deep thoughts of his onetime bully.  
Every day that went by that Marie was nice to him was changing his opinion of her. As he sat there thinking about Marie a smile was slowly growing on his face and anyone that saw Edd right now would say he looks like a boy in love.  
He lets out a long sigh and lays back on his bed. 'There is something unique about you Marie.'  
Just as he was about to close his eyes, he hears the sound of the window opening and then a voice whispers; "psst, Double Dee, you still awake?"  
"Marie?" He asks sitting back up in his bed.  
"Yeah, come here."  
Edd quietly climbs out of his bed and walks over to the window. "What are you doing out of your cabin at this hour?" He asks the blue haired girl in a black hoodie outside the window.  
She smiles. "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure."  
"What?"  
"I wanna show you something."  
Edd looks behind him at the other boys asleep in the cabin and then back to the girl in front of him. Behind him is the safe, and boring, choice of saying no and going to bed. But through the window with Marie is the dangerous choice, and looking at her he gets a feeling of boldness. "Ok, just let me get my shoes." He says choosing what might be the wrong choice, but at the very least he could claim he wanted to keep her out of too much trouble.  
Marie's smile grows and she is almost jumping for joy. "Sweet, you're going to love this."  
Edd leaves the window and returns to his bed. He sits down and quickly puts his shoes on and grabs his Smartphone and his own dark orange hoodie, that his mother claimed he'd not need at camp, and then returned to the window. "Ok, how should I get out the window?"  
"Have you never claimed out a window before? Just stick one leg out and then your head." She says amazed that she has to tell Edd how to do something she does all the time.  
Edd follows her instructions and is soon out the window. "Ok, where are we going?" He asks as he pulls his sweater on over his pajamas.  
"Follow me." Marie grabs Edd's hand, which made his heart beat ever so slightly faster, and pulls him off towards the lake.  
Edd is worried that she is going to want him to get into the water, but when they hit the beach she turns to the right and they head down the beach.  
"Marie." Edd says as the camp dock get further and further away. "Where are you taking me?"  
"Here." She says as they come to a stop. In front of them is a small clearing on the beach where the trees would hide them from the camp.  
Edd admires the clearing, it isn't very big but there is enough room for them to sit. "Ok, so why are we here?"  
Marie points up to the sky and Edd looks up and sees that it's a clear sky without any clouds in the sky. "I thought you'd like the view."  
Marie lets go of Edd, walks into the clearing and sits down in the sand. "They're pretty aren't they?" She says looking up at the sky.  
Edd sits down next to her, looks up at the starts and then over at her. "Yeah." He says not taking his eyes off Marie.  
In the light of the stars and moon, Marie is glowing and Edd feels his face burn and his heart starts pounding in his chest.  
Edd didn't notice that Marie was singing something to herself as he was looking at her. "Life in the stars is all I've ever known… stars and stardust in infinite space is my only home…" It was more of a whisper, but with nothing making any sounds, Edd was able to hear her.  
Hearing her sing snapped Edd out of the trance he was in. "What is that song, if you don't mind me asking."  
"Huh what? Oh… it's the song you heard me singing before…" Marie starts to blush. Singing is something she has only ever done by herself, and Edd hearing her sing made her feel embarrassed.  
"You must really like that show, if you sing that song frequently."  
Marie looks over to the edge of the lake. "It's silly and sometimes makes no sense, but the music is really cool."  
"Maybe I should look into it then." Edd says as Marie gets up from the sand and walks over to the edge of the water. "Do you see something?" He asks as Marie kneels down by the water.  
Marie gets up and walks back over to Edd. "I found this odd rock, it's all shiny." She sits back down next to him and shows him the rock.  
Edd holds out his hand. "May I see it?"  
"What is it?" She asks, setting the rock in Edd's hand.  
It only took Edd a fraction of a second to recognize what the rock is. "It's a piece of obsidian."  
"What's that?"  
"Volcanic glass, it is produced when lava from a volcano cools rapidly." Edd turns the peace of obsidian around in his hand. It is small and looks as if it had been shaped at one time. "I think this was an arrowhead."  
"For like a bow and arrow?" She asks.  
"Yes, I didn't know there were any Native Americans in this part of the country."  
"Could, could I have it?" Marie asks looking at the obsidian.  
Edd hold the arrowhead out to Marie. "You found it, so it's yours to begin with."  
Marie smiles and takes the arrowhead. "Thank ya Double Dee." She then leans back on her hands to look back up at the stars. "So who are we looking at?"  
Edd raises his eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"  
"The constellations."  
"Oh, well let's see…" Edd starts naming off the constellation he sees in the sky and Marie sat looking up with him commenting every now and then.  
After a while Marie moves to rest her head on Edd's shoulder, and to her excitement he didn't object to her getting conferrable on him.  
When she rested her head on his shoulder Edd couldn't believe she is resting on him, but he is enjoying himself with her and lets her rest.

Eventually Edd ran out of constellations to name and the two sit in silence for hours until the sun starts to show in the horizon.  
Edd looks at the clock on his phone."I think we should head back Marie, Tim and Tina will notice we are gone if we stay out any longer."  
Marie looks at Edd's phone and sees how long they have been sitting on the beach. "Yeah I guess."  
Edd stands up and offers a hand to Marie to help her up. She smiles and takes his hand. "Thanks." She says as she stands up.  
They walk back to the camp, with their lack of sleep catching up to them, in silence. Once they reach Edd's cabin, with the window still open, Marie grabs Edd and pulls him into a hug. "Thank you Double Dee." She whispers to him before running away.

* * *

With her blanket wrapped around her, Marie runs ahead of her cabin mates to the Mess Hall. A large storm is on its way and Ms. Marpole is moving all the campers into the Mess Hall to keep them safe.  
Tim and Tina were going from cabin to cabin telling the kids about the move and the storm and when Marie heard of how big the storm is, she was the first one out of the cabin. Growing up in Seattle you would think Marie would be use to rain storms, but ever since she was little she hated thunder and lighting.  
Inside the Mess Hall a majority of the campers were already there, most of them were goofing around. Marie looks around the hall full of kids running around, the tables and benches had all been stacked up on one side for room, looking for the one person she desperately wanted to be near when the storm hits. She spots Edd sitting against the wall reading and smile as she runs over to him. "Hey Double Dee."  
"Hello Marie." After spending the night watching the stars Edd has been quiet around Marie. He was starting to feel confused and unsure, but about what he couldn't put his finger on. He really likes being around Marie, but when he is with her he feels almost ill.  
Marie sits down next to him and lets go of her blanket, revealing that she has her sketchbook with her. "I guess this is going to be-"  
 ***Crack***  
 ***Boob*  
** Lighting struck cutting Marie off and scaring her. "Ahh!" Marie screams and clings to Edd's arm out of fear.  
Edd lets Marie hold his arm until she wasn't afraid anymore. "Are you ok Marie?" He asks once his arm was free.  
"Yeah, I just don't like-"  
 ***Boom***  
This time Marie wraps her free arm around Edd's chest out of fear. "Nnnnn. I hate this I hate this I hate this." She says into his chest just as another boom echoes in the hall.  
Edd wraps his arm around her instinctively. "It's ok Marie, I got you." He says holding her tight.  
Edd holding her made Marie feel safer from the storm, but every thunder and lightning strike she would still make her jump and hold him tight.

Eventually the lighting stops, but only after Marie fell asleep still holding Edd. He doesn't mind that Marie is sleeping on him, even if he is feeling that familiar ill feeling. Marie lets out a long sleepy sigh and her sketch book slips out of her hand and falls to the floor. Edd looks down at it and sees that if fell open to the back of the book. He looks over at Marie, still holding him and still protected by his arms around her, and then back to the book. Curios he picks up the book, looks at it and sees that the last pages are full of writing.  
He knows he shouldn't, but still curios he starts reading. Edd learns after reading the first line of the writing that Marie has used the back pages of her sketchbook as a diary. And they are all Marie telling the sketchbook about him.  
Edd knows he should stop reading what Marie has written, but he desperately wanted to know more about what Marie thinks of him. He quickly skims the first few entrees, they are about Marie watching him in school and the various ways that she has tormented him. He turns the page and sees a long entree about Marie watching Edd at school talking to Nazz.  
"I just don't get what he sees in her. Whatever she's got going on, I bet I could do better. Even if I'm not prom queen material I know I could make DD happy. I just wish he'd look at me like he looks at her." She'd written in her sketchbook.  
After the entree about Nazz and him Edd sees that Marie has attempted at writing a poem;  
 _His name is Double Dee, because he has double the brains._  
 _He has double the heart and makes mine beat double the speed._  
 _He hides under his hat, like I hide behind my hair._  
 _If only he could see, what we could be, I'm sure he'd fall for me, just as I have for him.  
_ The poem has a lot of words crossed out, but Edd thought it was a nice attempt at poetry.  
The last few entrees are about her seeing him at camp, vowing to at least get to be his friend, and showing him her drawings, he is also read that he is the first person to ever look in her book.  
The last entree he reads is her recap of a dream she had;  
"This dream felt so real. DD and me were living in a big city and we were married AND we had a baby together. I would kill (I have a list of people) to have this be a reality. Just me and DD together with none of the bad things in our lives."  
Edd looks over at Marie, she's always said she was his boyfriend and that he was hers. But he never thought she was serious until now. He closes her sketchbook, places it carefully on the floor and then makes sure Marie is covered with her blanket. 'You are far more complex than I thought you to be Marie.' He thinks as he slightly pulls his arm tighter around her, to help keep her safe as the storm starts up again.

Marie wakes up to the sun shining through the windows of the Mess Hall. It only took her a second to remember holding onto Edd during the night to feel safer from the storm, and as she looks up at the still sleeping Edd she realizes that he still has his arm around her. She smiles wide as she is filled with her affection for him. 'Thank you for keeping me safe Double Dee.' She thinks as she leans up to kiss him on the cheek.  
After the kiss she snuggles back into Edd to hold him in her arms and wait for when they have to get up.

There was little to no damage to the camp, a few broken tree branches and a cracked window, but Ms. Marpole still put regular camp activities on hold for the day. Most of the kids took to spending the day swimming, but Edd chose otherwise.  
He was awake when Marie kissed him and he is now laying on his bed trying to wrap his mind around what happened the previous night. Putting his arm around Marie was done by instinct and it didn't bother him to hold her as she fell asleep. And when he woke up he was still holding her and she was cuddling him.  
'What is going on?' He thinks closing his eyes.

Edd ended up falling asleep on his bed trying to figure out the recent events, and thinking about Marie made him dream about her. He dreamt about them being fresh out of high school and living in a small apartment as he attended college. The dream felt so surreal to Edd that he thought it was real, that he was with Marie and was extremely happy about it.  
"Dreaming about something good?"  
The sound of Ben's voice snaps Edd out of his dream. "Can I help you?" He asks, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.  
Ben points off into the distance. "Marpole forgot to lock one of the wreck buildings."  
"And?" Edd asks as he sits up in his bed.  
Ben smiles. "And a bunch of kids are sneaking in to have some fun."  
Again, Edd asks; "And?"  
Ben rolls his eyes out of annoyance. "Because you're coming with us."  
"Us?" Edd is still confused, and a bit groggy, so he is missing what Ben is implying.  
"Me and Scott."  
"You mean Scott and I." Edd corrects Ben on his grammar out of habit.  
"Sweet, let's go." Ben turns and starts to walk away. His smile grows, happy that his trick worked on Edd.  
Edd gets off his bed to follow Ben. "Where am I going?"  
Ben doesn't stop walking out of the cabin. "To the wreck building dude. For a smart guy, you're pretty slow."  
Edd is following Ben, still not fully awake, out of the cabin. "I didn't agree to go."  
"Yes you did, you said "Scott and I", so I assume you are going with us." Scott says from outside the cabin.  
Edd jumps at the sound of Scott's voice. "Scott! What are you doing?"  
Scott joins Ben and Edd walking towards the wreck building. "Waiting for you two."  
Edd stops walking. "Gentlemen, I am not going with you."  
Ben and Scott stop as well. "I told you he was going to chicken out." Scott says to Ben, crossing his arms.  
Ben looks at Edd and then back to Scott. "Well then, there is only one thing to do…"

Edd tried to fight against them, but Ben and Scott were both much stronger than him and they successfully dragged Edd all the way to the wreck hall.  
"You two do realize that the moment you let me go, I'm going to leave." Edd says as he is dragged into the wreck hall.  
"And you'd get caught." Ben says as he looks around the wreck hall.  
There isn't many kids in the hall, ten at the most, and they are all sitting in a circle on the floor.  
"Hey Ben, you made it." A blond girl says, looking up from the circle.  
Ben smiles at the girl as Scott and him drag Edd over to the circle. "Hey Vicky."  
Scott and Ben force Edd to sit down and they finally let go of him. He was just about to get up and leave, not caring if he would get caught or not, but Edd looks around the circle of kids and sees Marie. 'Ok, so maybe this won't be so bad.' He thinks as she smiles at him.  
Edd smiles back at her as Vicky spins a glass bottle that was sitting on the floor.

Edd quickly lost interest in what the other kids in the circle are doing, he was solely focusing on Marie. He would look at her with a very shy smile and would quickly look away if she turned to look at him. She'd catch him looking at her sometimes and would smile at him or make faces at him.  
Both teens were focused on each other that they didn't see that Blossom had just spun the bottle and it was slowing down. The bottle stops and is pointing at Edd. "Double Dee, truth or dare?" She asks as Marie sticks her tongue out at Edd.  
Edd didn't hear her full question and only caught the last word. "Dare what now?" He asks looking away from Marie.  
Unfortunately for Edd his choice of words betrays him again. Blossom, and the rest of the kids, took what he said as choosing dare. "Ok, I dare you…" Blossom looks over to her friend gazing longingly at Edd. She fully knows how Marie feels for Edd and decides to give her a hand. "To kiss Marie."  
"Oooo." The kids say together.  
"Wait, what?" Edd looks around the room, he clearly has missed something.  
"Ya gotta do it man." Ben pushes Edd into the middle of the circle just as Marie is pushed by one of the girls next to her.  
Marie glares behind her trying to find who pushed her. "Knock it off." She says before turning back and seeing a very confused and nervous Edd. "Hey." She whispers just loud enough for only him to hear. "You don't have to do anything ya don't want to, especially if you're scared." Of cores Marie would love for Edd to do the dare, but not if he is afraid to kiss her.  
"Come on man!" Scott yells. "Don't go and puss out on us like a little kid."  
Marie looks past Edd and glares at Scott, she just keeps finding more and more things to hate about Edd's cabin mate.  
Marie didn't think Scott's words had any effect on Edd, but they did. He is tired of people calling him chicken and saying he is too afraid of life. And it is either the time he's been at camp or just wanting to be more than just a kid, Edd wants to prove himself that he can be more than what people think he is. So he takes a big gulp to calm himself, closes his eyes so he couldn't see the world around him, and then leans over and kisses Marie.  
Edd was worried that he would dislike the kiss, but he liked it. He liked it a lot and what was meant to be a quick kiss turned into a longer one. No thanks to Marie, who feels as if fireworks are going off inside of her.  
The kids Oooo again at them as they break apart. Edd still has his eyes closed, he's unsure what it would look like after he'd just kissed the one girl he once thought he'd never willingly kiss. But as he opens his eyes he sees the same Marie Kanker kneeling with him in the middle of the circle with a very big smile on her face. Nothing had changed, the world was still the same, albeit for the lingering feeling on his lips and the pounding in his chest.  
Marie knows that they need to get away from the other kids, things need to be said in private. Without a word she stands and pulls Edd up from the floor and moves to lead him out of the building. A few of the kids Oooo at them again and just to appease the masses she grins back at them and wiggles her eyebrows knowing full well that nothing major is going to be happening between Edd and her.  
Marie leads Edd outside and around the back of the building so they were out of sight.  
"Is something wrong Marie?" Edd asks. He is a storm of confusion over what had just happened. He already accepted that he had something for Marie, but just thought it was a growing friendship, not a level of affection he hasn't had for anyone before.  
"Nothing's wrong Double Dee." Marie says, taking his hands in her. "I just don't want to say this in front of them."  
Marie takes a deep breath to prepare herself for what she is about to say. "I know I've said it a million times that you're my man and that I'm your girlfriend and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you'd still reject me, but I do like you. Like really really like you. Just being near you makes my heart beat faster, and even if I only got to see you for a fraction of a second, it would still be the highlight of my day. I wish I could have been as brave as you, to have said these things years ago instead of pushing you away. I'm just so afraid of being happy that it makes me abusive and I hate it. I think it's my mom's hatred for men that-" Edd stops her mid confession.  
"Marie." He says taking his right hand out of hers to wipe a tear out of her eye. "I did once just see you as a bully, as a mean girl that wants nothing in life but to make mine miserable, but that's not what I see now. I see the real Marie, who has a side I've only just begun to see, and I see someone I would very much like to call my-" This time Marie cuts Edd off with a finger over his lips.  
"Don't. Don't say anything, or put labels on anything. For now let's just enjoy being at camp together, and let whatever happens, happen."  
Edd sheepishly smiles. "Alright then." Marie didn't want to be called his girlfriend as it might jinx what they have, and she doesn't want him to call himself her boyfriend. Edd is fine with that, he just wants to have her in his life.  
Marie leans into Edd and hugs him like she has wanted to hug him for years. "Thank you." She whispers before pulling away just enough for the two teens to share their second official kiss.

* * *

Edd couldn't fully explain where this affection for Marie came from, was it him just growing and thus hormones were the cause, or was it him learning about the real Marie and seeing her for who she truly is? He doesn't know and he doesn't really care to find out, he likes her and he chose to just let whatever may come come.  
Edd expected things to change a lot at camp now that Marie and him are something different, Marie didn't want to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, but not much did change. They were already eating breakfast and dinner together, but now they would also eat lunch together. Edd learned the very first day after the night of spin the bottle that Marie would go out into the woods to sit on the rock to draw while she ate, she likes to eat in peace and the clearing has become her secret place at camp.  
Marie hated that there is only a few weeks left of camp, it left her with very little time to spend with Edd without her sisters ridiculing her for "being soft", so she welcomed any time spent with him. She loved that he would sit with her in the clearing during lunch time. They would mostly sit in silence so Marie could focus on her drawing, but they would talk too.  
Edd has started to open up more to Marie. He told her about his family originally being from Lemon Brook, a big city a few miles away from Peach Creek.  
"Heh, I guess we're a pair of city slickers." Marie said as Edd told her about where he used to live.  
Edd laughed. "I guess we are."  
Marie slides her pencil behind her ear and then moves to rest her head in Edd's lap, she's done drawing for the time being and wants to relax.  
Edd looks down at Marie and smiles at her. "Conferrable?" He asks as she smiles back at him.  
Marie lets out a sigh and closes her eyes. "Yeah, the sun feels nice."  
Edd pets her hair out of affection, and as he pets her hair her bangs over her right eye move away reliving a scar threw her eyebrow. "Marie, may I ask what happened?" he asks gently running his index finger over the scar.  
Marie takes his hand and lassies their fingers together. "That's from when we played pirates."  
"Pirates?" He asks confused as he squeezing her hand. Holding Marie's hand is something Edd never thought he'd ever do, and now it is something he loves to do.  
Marie doesn't open her eyes. "Remember when you, Ed, and Eddy made that raft and went on a trip down the creek?"  
"Yes. And as I recall, you and your sisters attacked us… like pirates…" Edd finally remembers the incident Marie was talking about. It was a day over a year ago where the three Ed's made a boat out of a large tire tube and took a few fellow member of the cul-de-sack on a trip down the small creek that runs by the cul-de-sack.  
Marie smiles. "Heh Heh. Yeah, so after you guys got away our raft crashed and the weed wackier came loose and I just wasn't fast enough to get fully out of the way of it."  
"Oh my, I am sorry to hear that you were injured." Edd gently rubs Marie's cheek in a subconscious attempt to comfort her from the old injury.  
"Eh, it's cool, nothing really bad happened." Marie loves the gentle touch of Edd's hand on her cheek, it reminded her that what they have is really happening.  
"Is that why you cover your eye with your hair?" He asks guessing the reasoning for Marie always hiding her right eye behind her hair.  
"Well at first it was just the look I liked, but it does help to stop people from asking what happened all the time."  
"Oh, I'm sorry I asked. Had I know it was a touchy subject I would have refrained from asking."  
"Don't be silly Double Dee. Even if you did know I wouldn't mind ya asking."  
Edd smiles and looks off into the forest, his short amount of time with Marie has made him see things differently. The colors of the forest seemed to just jump out at him and birds singing sounded more magical.  
"Ya mind if I ask you something Double Dee?" Marie asks, bringing Edd back.  
He looks down at her. "Of cores." He responds with a smile.  
"Your hat." Marie points at Edd's black ski cap on his head. "Why do you always have it on? I've never seen you without it. Is there something you don't want the world to see?"  
Edd takes his hand off her cheek and touches his hat. She is right, he never goes anywhere without his signature black ski cap. "Well, yes and no. You see my grandfather was a very outdoors kind of person, going on trips all over the continent. And when he'd come to visit, before my family moved, he would tell me stories about everywhere he'd been. I loved his stories and would hang on every word. I wished I could go with him all the time when I was younger, but my parents pushed me more to study then going outside. He gave me this hat for my fifth birthday, it's the very same hat he wore when he hiked Mount Denali in Alaska, and it became my most cherished possession. Well one day his stories had gotten into my head a bit too much, and well I tried climbing the book shelf and I fell off the top."  
At the mention of Edd getting hurt Marie shot upright. "Oh my god, were you ok?" She asks terrified for his safety.  
"You promise to not say anything?" Edd felt nervous, only Ed and Eddy know of what is under his hat, say for his parents.  
Marie looks Edd right in the eye. "My lips will forever be sealed."  
Edd takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. "Well when I fell I hit the side of my head on a shelf, and the wound was rather severe." As Edd said this he took his hat off showing Marie the noticeable patch of black hair missing from the side of his head, above his right ear.  
Marie moves to kneel besides Edd. Right away she loves his short messy black hair. She takes his head in her hands and looks him right in the eyes. "I still think you're handsome Double Dee." She says running her hands through his hair.  
Edd blushes. "Thank you Marie."  
Marie doesn't care that Edd has his own scars from his past, in fact she felt an even deeper connection to him because of the similarities between the two of them.  
The feeling of Marie's hands in his hair was relaxing and Edd closes his eyes. With his eyes closed he didn't see Marie move closer to him, but he did open his eyes when he felt their lips touch.  
Edd couldn't believe that he told and showed Marie his scar, it's something he always felt a bit of shame over, but something about the young lady he is kissing makes him feel bolder and more open. And he almost doesn't believe that he is kissing Marie, but he is and he likes it. The kiss filled him with an odd warm and fuzzy feeling.  
Not wanting to, Edd pulls away from Marie. "We should probably head back to the camp Marie."  
A pout comes to Marie's face, but it wasn't a real pout. "Ok…" She grabs her sketchbook and slides off the rock. She takes a step away and then turns and holds her hand out to him. "Waiting on you now."  
Edd smiles at Marie, she is such a playful and silly person. Something he might not have learned about her if they hadn't gone to the summer camp. He grabs their trays of half eaten food and gets off the rock himself.

Whenever they had a free minute Edd and Marie would be together. Sometimes Marie would get him to come out side of the wreck room or his cabin and they would sometimes end up kissing somewhere hidden, but most of the time she wanted to have Edd hold her in his arms.  
She would also forgo doing what she was suppose to do for the daily activity she was suppose to do and just watch Edd observing the ant farm he made.  
"Why ants Double Dee? If ya don't mind me asking." She asks looking into the glass case at the small insects inside of it.  
Edd looks up from his notebook full of all the notes he's written. "I think they are fascinating Marie. They are nature's engineers."  
She looks away from the ants moving dirt around. "Is that something ya wanna do?"  
"Maybe, I don't want to set my life's path in stone just yet."

* * *

The final week of their time at camp came sooner than Marie or Edd wanted it too. Marie is in the main wreck building for the art program listing to Tina go over what they are going to need to do for the week.  
"So like you guys need to get something together for a end of camp contest. Just get something you've made here together and the science guys will like judge them." Tina says, with a tone of voice that makes it sound as if she doesn't care about anything, which is how she always sounds.  
Marie wasn't fully paying attention to Tina, she got that she had to pick a project, she didn't want to be in the building, she wanted to be with Edd. Time is short and she knows that once they leave that things will change.  
Once Tina was done talking and the other kids went about doing their own thing Marie gets up from her chair and heads for the supply closet. She was already done with her drawing of the clearing, and almost done with an extra page that she is keeping to herself until she is done to show it to Edd, but she came up with an idea for one last project to do.  
Ever since she found it, Marie would play with her arrowhead when she would be laying in bed at night, and she was flipping it around in her fingers as she pretended to listen.  
As she's looking threw the mess of the closet she felt someone walk up behind her. She turns around and then glares. "What do you want?" She asks annoyed that Scott is near her.  
Scott points past Marie into the closet. "I need to get in there."  
Marie looks behind herself and sees a ball of twine. She grabs it and moves to walk away from Scott.  
Marie was almost out of earshot when she hears; "I don't see what that lame ass nerd sees in that psycho."  
Marie stops mid step. "Excuse me." She says turning around glaring at Scott again.  
"What?" He asks.  
Marie crosses her arms. "What did you just say?"  
"What do you care?"  
Marie walks back to Scott. "You can call me names all you want. But if you ever say anything about my boyfriend, I will beat you senseless." She says poking him in the chest.  
"Knock it off." Scott smacks her hand away.  
Marie clenches her fist, but holds herself back, she can't risk getting kicked out. She takes a deep breath, digs her nails into her palm. "You're not worth it." Taking all of her willpower to do so, Marie turns to walk away from Scott.  
With a smug look on his face Scott says; "That's right, walk away. You're a wimp just like your loser of a boy toy."  
 ***Wap***  
Scott falls to the floor from Marie's punch to the chest. "I told you to not talk crap about my boyfriend."  
The punch to the chest knocked the wind out of Scott's chest so he was unable to respond back. All he could do was curler up in a ball on the floor.  
Marie walks away from Scott, she knows that she just risked getting kicked out, but she wasn't going to stand hearing anything negative about her boyfriend.

Edd himself was in one of the wreck buildings used by Tim going over his notes on his ants. He is confidant that his research on ants will merit some recognition, but as he reads over his documentation of the small insects, his mind wanders to Marie.  
He has thoroughly enjoyed the past few months of getting to know Marie and is really happy that he was forced into the spin the bottle game. Unfortunately Edd hasn't thought about what is going to happen once camp is over and Edd and Marie return to Peach Creek. And he is in such a good mood that what will come hasn't breached his mind.  
'We should do something special for the last day of camp.' He thinks, looking forward to seeing Marie at lunch.

At lunch, which they are eating in the clearing, Edd and Marie are talking about their end of camp projects.  
"I'm sure your drawing will win the contest Marie." Edd said as he looked over the five drawing Marie has done of the clearing.  
Marie is lying on her back resting her head on Edd's leg. "Are saying that because I'm that good, or is there another reason?"  
Edd turns the page of Marie's drawing book to the last page of the drawings. "Yes, well yes you are a good artist and yes I may have a bias on my option."  
Marie grins up at Edd. "Heh heh, good. Just so you know, I'm sure you'll win too and I admit to be very bias myself."  
Edd pets her hair. "Thank you for your vote of confidence." 

* * *

Despite how detailed his research was Edd came in third place in the competition, behind Dexter at first and Blossom at second. But Marie's drawing won her first place in the art competition and that made Edd feel no remorse over his loss. The small trophy she got was the biggest boost in confidence Marie has ever gotten in her skills as an artist. She feels like if she did work hard she could do something with her skills after school.

Most of the kids were spending their last day at camp swimming or playing around. But Edd and Marie chose to head over to the hidden area by the lake where they star gazed.  
The two teen are sitting against a tree looking out over the lake just enjoying the tranquil silence of the forest. Marie moves to rest her head on Edd's shoulder. As she does this, she notices that Edd has changed somewhat over the past few months. He's gained some muscle tone, granted he is still skinny and gangly, but not as much as he was when he arrived. As well as a slight tan from being outside, which Marie found very odd for a boy that fills all the topes of a stay inside all year round kid. But she doesn't care about his looks, it's always been about more than that For Marie.  
Edd Hug's Marie close. "Congratulations on winning again Marie." He says with a kiss on the top of her head.  
"Thanks." Marie herself has also changed. Along with also getting a faint tan Marie is a calmer and a more happier person, she even apologized to someone when she ran into them. But if anyone brought that up they would probably be punched as Marie denied the whole thing.

They stay quiet for almost three hours. Edd didn't want to say anything or ask Marie anything about what is going to happen after camp, he just wants to spent a quiet afternoon with the girl he likes. And it's the same for Marie. She knows that when they get back to Peach Creek her sisters wouldn't like the idea of her being nice to Edd. How she's acted around Edd isn't the Kanker way, and they are sure to put a stop to their relationship.  
"Hey Double Dee." She says, sitting up from resting against him. "I want you to have this." She reaches into the front of her shirt and pulls out the broken arrowhead she's made into a necklace.  
"Marie, I can't take this, you found it."  
Marie takes her necklace off and pulls it over Edd's head. "I want you to have it, so that way you can remember our time here."  
Edd looks at the broken piece of obsidian around his neck. "I could never forget these past few months."  
"I know, but just in case ok?"  
"Ok, I'll keep it safe for you then." Edd gives her a gentle kiss.  
"You better." She says after breaking the kiss. 

* * *

The morning of the bus ride home was awkwardly quiet for Marie and Edd. They ate breakfast together, sat together as Ms. Marpole gave her farewell speech to the campers, and are now standing together waiting to get onto the bus.  
Marie is holding her sketch book against her chest, she's finished her last drawing and is ready to show it to Edd, but she's nervous about showing him this one. This one is different than anything she's ever drawn and she doesn't know what Edd will say.  
"Marie." The sound of Edd's voice gets Marie's attention off her drawing. "You ok?"  
"Yeah, just, um…" She takes a deep breath. "I finished this last, and um… what do ya think?" She opens her sketchbook to the final drawing she did.  
The last drawing is of Marie and Edd sitting on the rock in the clearing in the forest. Marie doesn't have much practice in drawing actual people, so Edd and her were not perfect.  
Edd feels his cheeks start to burn as he looks at the drawing of him kissing Marie.  
The red in Edd's cheeks made Marie smile. "I take it you like it." She asks as the line gets closer to the bus door.  
"I do, it's very lovely." Edd's complement of her drawing washed away all of her nervousness of the drawing.  
"Thank ya sweetie."

Once on the bus the silence between the two of them returned. They sit together holding hands dreading every mile that brings them closer to Peach Creek. Tears even almost come to Marie's eyes when they pass the city limits sign. And when the bus pulls into the parking lot, that tear runs down Marie's cheek.  
The bus comes to a stop and the kids on the bus get up and start filling out, But Edd and Marie don't stand. They sit in their seat until they are the last ones on the bus.  
Edd turns to Marie. "You know we have to get off the bus now."  
"I know, but once we get off, everything will go back to the way it was." She responds, looking out the window at the kids and parents.  
Edd squeezes her hand. "Everything comes to an end at some point Marie." He says, holding back his own heart break. Edd knows that Ed and Eddy would be anything but happy to see Edd with Marie how they have been at camp. Ed would run and cry and Eddy would yell at the sight of Edd even holding Marie's hand, and who know what would happen if they were seen kissing.  
Marie turn around to look at him. "Will we even still be friends?"  
Edd wipes the tear from her eye. "I don't see why we can't."  
Marie leans into Edd's hand. "I guess if you're still my friend, then I think I can-"  
"Come on kids! Off the bus." The driver yells at Edd and Marie.  
The two teens jump at the sound of the bus driver and quickly gather their bags and leave the bus.

Once off of the bus Marie sees her mother's rust red truck and Edd sees his mother's car. Marie throws her bag over her shoulder. "Good buy Edd, it was a lot of fun being at camp with you."  
Edd sets his bag down on the ground. "It was a lot of fun for me too Marie." Marie jumps into his arms and they share one last hug followed by one last kiss.  
Without a word said, they slowly walk away from each other, with tears forming and hearts breaking.

Later that night, after their mother left for work, the Kanker sisters are sitting in the living room of their trailer watching TV and talking. Lee and May had already spent the better part of two hours making fun of Marie for going to camp, they said the exact same things they said before she left. Things like her becoming an art snob, being smarter than them, and that Marie is now somehow better than Lee and May because she went to camp.  
But now the conversation has evolved into Lee and May talk about what they did to Ed and Eddy while she was gone.  
"Those two idiots were cakewalk to mess with without the brain boy around." Lee says, commenting on the lack of effort her and May needed to use to torment the other two Edd's.  
"Mmm." Marie has hardly paid attention to her sisters over the night, her mind is on Edd. "Look I'm tired, I'm going to bed."  
Her sisters didn't even look away from the TV as Marie got up from the couch next to them.  
Marie had lied, she wasn't sleepy, she is just really sad and wanted to get in some crying before her sisters come up stairs to their bedroom.

As Marie is changing into pajamas she hears a tap on the window. She looks at the window confused as she pulls her night shirt on.  
 ***Tap***  
There is a second tap on the window as Marie walks over to the window. She looks out it and smiles wide. Edd is standing below the window with a few small rocks in his hand.  
She rips open the window. "Double Dee? What are you doing here?" She doesn't wait for an answer and is claiming out of the window to see him.  
As Marie lands on the ground in front of him Edd says; "I wanted to talk to you."  
Marie hugs him. It has only been a couple of hours, but it feels like ages since she's seen him. "What did you want to talk about?"  
Edd holds her close. "I don't want what we had at camp to end. I feel like there is still much to learn about you Marie, and I do not wish to stop learning."  
Marie rests her head against his chest. "You know it won't be easy, people will say things about us being boyfriend and girlfriend and will try to break us up." She herself didn't care what people would say, if Edd wants to be her boyfriend then she will take whatever comes head on.  
Edd doesn't care what anyone would say either, he really likes Marie and wants her as his girlfriend. "We weathered one storm and came out of it just fine, I think we can handle anything."  
The two teens kiss making their relationship official. Whatever Ed, Eddy, May, or even Lee will say or do to them, Edd and Marie want this and will be there to stand up for the other.

 **Epilogue.**

Edd and Marie walk up the stairs of their school hand in hand. The past month was a lot of fun for them, watching cartoons at Edd's house and Edd going with Marie into town to people watch to practice her drawing people skills.  
As they expected, her sisters and the Ed's were not happy about Marie and Edd dating, but it was Edd that told them off. He told the Ed's that doesn't matter if Marie is a Kanker and that she has done some bad things in the past, he's forgiven her and that is all that should matter. He also told Marie's sisters that they have no authority to tell Marie how to be happy, this ended up with him getting a punch and a threat from Lee, but he didn't back off from defending Marie and his relationship.  
His talking to the others must have work because they did leave Edd and Marie alone for the most part.  
"Remember your promise Double Dee." Marie says, as Edd holds the front door of the school building open for her.  
Edd follows her into the building. "I remember, three nights a week I help you with your school work."  
"And every other Saturday we do something sporadic and chaotic." Marie adds, finishing the rest of the promise the two of them made to each other.  
"I think it is safe to say this is going to be the best school year yet."  
"It has to be to be following the best summer ever."  
They know that this is going to be a hard year of school for them, not only because school is getting more difficult, but because the highest of taboo's in the cul-de-sack has been broken. But, as they both have explained to several people, kids change all the time over the summer break, so why couldn't they?  
Marie looks over at her boyfriend. "Hey Double Dee."  
Edd looks to her. "Yes Marie?"  
"Thank you, for not giving up."  
Edd smiles. "You're welcome Marie. I don't ever intend to give up."  
"Good." Marie kisses Edd on the cheek, happy that fate let her go to the camp for the summer.

 **The End.**

 **AN:** Hello peoples! I know it's kind of odd to have a full story as one chapter, but this one was a bit of an odd case. A couple months ago my cat got sick and while writing has been my hobby for almost two years now, losing her made me not want to do much. So I just kept writing and working on this to help cope and ended up will a full story written.  
Sorry for getting anyone sad, Ema was a great cat and I still believe she listened to me as I talked about my stories and just used her as a soundboard for idea.  
On to less emotional stuff, I really want to try and move away from Edd and Marie with my writing, I've been working on a Digimon fic for a very long time now and I think it will be a winner, but this pairing keeps drawing me back (what can I say? It's a drug I love). I came up with another Edd X Marie story but I'm going to hold off on that and try doing something else first.  
I hope the little easter egg's in this one were fun for my fans, and if something's confused you, you should check out my other fics (shameless promotion).  
Thank you everyone that took the time to read this and I hope everyone that did enjoyed it.

Until next time, keep being awesome.  
Linken88.


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